Gospel:
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Reflection:
The familiar ritual of Ash Wednesday involves both a symbol and a word. As the sacramental of the blessed ashes is traced upon the forehead, the Church instructs the minister to say one of two possible formulas: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” or “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

The first formula is taken from the words that God pronounced to the disobedient Adam and Eve before they were cast out of Paradise: “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The second formula is taken from today’s Gospel, as Jesus begins to proclaim the Good News. The time of fulfillment has come; the descendants of Adam and Eve will soon be freed from their mortal curse by repenting and believing in the Christ.

Lent begins with the words of the Fall and the Redemption, reminding us simultaneously of Death and Resurrection. It is a paradox that is only understood, only fully resolved, when at the Easter Vigil the deacon chants that most curious of Christian statements: “O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!”

Father Matthew Morris

OPERATION RICE BOWL STORIES OF HOPE: WEEK 1

Life and Dignity of the Human Person
Catholic social teaching inspires and guides how we are to live and work in the world. In this principle, Life and Dignity of the Human Person, Jesus reminds us that we are all made in God’s image and likeness. That means that every human being has a special value and a purpose. We need to care for each other so we can be the people God calls us to be.

Encounter Majd
Eight-year-old Majd thought his family was going on a picnic. His mother, Lamya, said they would be back home in a week. But when ISIS attacked their home in northern Iraq, the family fled for good.

“What worried me the most were the kids,” Lamya says. “Our life was stable and we were doing well; we had a very big house. Our children had everything they needed. But when we fled, I was not able to bring anything for them-not even food.”

Fortunately, the family found an apartment to rent with other displaced families. It is much smaller than the home they had, but it’s safer. The children enrolled in a CRS-sponsored school, where the routine provides hope, stability and a sense of belonging. “Education is very important,” says Lamya, especially in Iraqi culture.

Lamya received training from CRS and became a teacher at the school. Now she has hope for the future. “I really love children, so when I go to class I feel like I am with my family,” she says.

Her son, Majd, also loves going to school. “Majd is so motivated to go to school. He just wants it to be morning so he can go,” Lamya says. “He is relaxed, having fun and more confident.” For Majd, school means a normal life-now and in the future.

Gospel:
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.

He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Reflection:
“I do will it. Be made clean.” These are the beautiful and most comforting words spoken by Jesus in today’s Gospel to the leper who approached Him, knelt down begging Jesus, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus could have shown no greater expression of love and mercy than to reach out His hand to touch this unclean leper. By doing this, Jesus showed His great love and compassion for the needy leper. You see, no man would have dared touch this leper, knowing he might contract this dreadful disease. Only the compassionate Jesus would perform such an act of mercy upon a helpless beggar
.
Ever since Biblical times, people have been fearful of leprosy. Under Jewish law, no one could approach within six feet of the leper and when approaching, the leper was required to cry out “unclean, unclean.” Jesus not only heals the disease but He also cleanses the leper. By cleansing the leper, Jesus is providing a spiritual healing, as well as a physical healing.

Where leprosy is noticeable as an exterior disease of sores on the body, how many of us in turn fully recognize our own inner sores – our sins? For we may be unclean. Maybe we are defiled through having impure thoughts, anger, bitterness, lust, greed, pride, and hurtful actions towards others.

So, what can we take away from today’s Gospel from Mark? If we go to Jesus on our knees and beg for healing, we will assuredly receive it. We believe that Jesus has the greatest healing power of all – healing us from our sins – but He does not always heal our physical ailments. However, we must have faith and trust in Him to do what is right and good for us and to stand with us in our suffering.

As we quickly approach the season of Lent, with Ash Wednesday on February 14, let us be aware of our inner sores, let us be “touched” by Jesus and receive His forgiveness and healing by participating in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Let us kneel down and say to Jesus, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” I assure you that He will reply back to you with the same compassion He showed the leper and say, “I will do it, be made clean.”

Gospel:
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.”
He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.”
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

Reflection:
The entire Gospel of Mark is short and can be read in just one sitting. While short in length, it is not thin in its message. Mark’s Gospel presents Jesus as a man of tireless action in so many of its passages. Jesus is presented with a need and he responds to it – never judging the recipient’s worthiness – just responding to the need. Jesus does not force his healing on anyone. Jesus does expect us to take our healing and pay it forward.

My wife Julie and I visited Capernaum in 1999. We visited the synagogue and walked to what is believed to be the home of Peter’s mother-in-law. While it may seem astounding to think that we can identify the actual locations today made famous in this Gospel passage, there is credible evidence that we can. Whether fact or not, it was awe inspiring to simply be there and imagine this very Gospel taking place beneath our feet some 2,000 years ago. So, if the place is real, why not the actions? One action is the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. It seems almost laughable that Jesus heals her and immediately “…she waited on them.” This may seem like Jesus was self-serving or even cruel, but that would miss the point. We are all meant to serve others. We are living in a world of significant brokenness. The brokenness we experience in our own lives prevents us from serving others. The Jesus of Mark’s Gospel heals our brokenness and with that healing, only then can we serve the Gospels in our service to others.

That message should live in us. Read this Gospel, end-to-end. It is quite a ride with Jesus’ action after action showing us that this is not simply a man doing good things, but God serving our deeply troubled need for healing with every action He takes.

Gospel:
Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are-the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said,
“Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

Reflection:
In this weekend’s gospel from St. Mark we hear Jesus begin to speak at a synagogue in Capernaum. He makes his voice heard for the first time as a preacher, teacher and healer. The people, who have heard preachers and teachers before, quickly recognize that Jesus’s voice is something new. Jesus’s voice is not one of the regulars. They are deeply impressed.

However, that morning in the synagogue there is a man who is very disturbed and who begins to shout and disrupt things. He, too, recognizes that this Jesus is a powerful man, a man who is able to deal with his troubled mind. But he is afraid and begins to shout at Jesus to ward him off. In response Jesus, by the power of his word – his voice – quiets the demon of torment and brings the grace of calmness and peace to that person.

‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?’ is the question put to Jesus by that tormented man, yet, it can be a question for all of us today. In our tormented world, so often unstable and full of fears and struggles, it is easy for us to hide away in our own little lives, safe perhaps from the drama all around us. May Jesus’s voice be just as powerful today to enliven our lives, change our unsettled ways, and to heal our hurting hearts.

Gospel:
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.

Reflection:
Wait! What? Didn’t we just have this reading last week? Didn’t we hear Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew being called and Jesus inviting them to “Come and see?” We did and we didn’t.

We did hear about the call of Simon and Andrew, but it was told in the Gospel of John. This week it is being told in the Gospel of Mark. If you put them side-by-side, you would note and maybe wonder about several differences. That is exactly what I did. Actually, I spent some significant time doing that very thing. Then I began to wonder, am I doing this as a diversion? Am I doing this instead of spending some time looking deeply into the passage given today? I was avoiding looking more deeply and closer to the passage because I really don’t like that “leave everything” phrase.

We know that Peter and Andrew did not entirely abandon the fishing business, but they gradually follow Jesus, embrace his teachings and later begin their missionary work. We are not encouraged to give up our jobs or leave our families to become a follower of Jesus. We are asked to abandon anything that keeps us from following him completely. Abandon anything that shifts our focus from Jesus. Take some time today reflecting upon what draws your focus away from God; are there things or people you choose over being a disciple of Jesus? A good place to start would be to wonder why you might say, “I am too busy to go to Church.” “I don’t have time to pray.” “I’m too tired to be involved in any kind of service project.” “I go to Church (most of the time) so my relationship with Jesus is fine.” I don’t really want a relationship with Jesus.” Busy-ness combined with Spiritual Sloth are probably the two biggest causes of losing sight of what is most important in life. Go back to Msgr. Hendricks reflection from last week. He said, “What Jesus asks of them (Peter and Andrew) is no different than what he asks of us, namely to do the works he does, to speak with compassion as he does, to care for those who reach out to us for our assistance.” In the past week did you do that or were you too busy or too spiritually lazy to even think about it? This week listen to Jesus’ call and invitation to “Come after me.”

Gospel:
John was standing with two of his disciples,
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God.”
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,
“What are you looking for?”
They said to him, “Rabbi” – which translated means Teacher -,
“where are you staying?”
He said to them, “Come, and you will see.”
So they went and saw where Jesus was staying,
and they stayed with him that day.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,
was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
He first found his own brother Simon and told him,
“We have found the Messiah” – which is translated Christ -.
Then he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said,
“You are Simon the son of John;
you will be called Cephas” – which is translated Peter.

Reflection:
As the major celebrations of the Birth of the Messiah have concluded, the Church now turns her attention to our enduring relationship with Jesus Christ.

The gospel of John sees Jesus gathering his disciples and asking them to remain with him and issues an invitation to “come and see,” not only where he is staying but how he lives and how much he wants them to be close to him. As John the Baptist calls him “the Lamb of God,” we know immediately that all of the promises of Old have been fulfilled in him and that a new era has dawned for the world.

What Jesus asks of them is no different than what he asks of us, namely to do the works he does, to speak with compassion as he does, to care for those who reach out to us for our assistance.

From now until Easter we are given a lesson each day to find ourselves drawn more closely to him, in thought, word, and deed.

Knowing that we too have found the Messiah, the Christ, will make all the difference as we journey with him.